In 2021, Kyle Larson won his first NASCAR Cup Series championship. He won 10 races that season—nearly a third of the schedule—and had to beat nearly 40 other top-level NASCAR drivers for each of them. As Larson celebrated the day of, the championship felt real. These days, not so much. “It's been two years,” Larson told Road Track. “But as time has gone on, knowing how tough it is to win a championship in the Cup Series, I'll just be by myself or something, like: ‘Man, I really won.
”NASCAR’s elimination-style playoffs are only a decade old. They’re sometimes criticized as less legitimate than a season-long points champion like other racing series have, and like NASCAR used to have. But NASCAR drivers know they’re all playing within the same rules—and ultimately, the team who plays them the best wins.